
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python GUI library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some people at Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Laura (an ex-teacher, for context)

On 14 November 2016 at 09:37, Laura Sach lawsie@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python GUI library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some people at Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
This is looking great, thanks for sharing!
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Have you looked at Shoes (from the Ruby world) at all? It was created with a similar aim - to make it as easy as possible to get started with GUI programming http://shoesrb.com/walkthrough/. It might be worth looking at for inspiration, but of course it leans heavily on Ruby magic.
Alex

Thanks Alex, I hadn't seen that (probably because I don't know Ruby) but it looks like a good idea. Guizero is even more cut down in its functionality, there are literally no bells and whistles.
I should probably add - the package is not finished! Some functionality is missing (checkboxes! radio buttons!), there are no docs, and there is no nice installation process. I think all of these things are absolutely crucial to people actually being able to use this with kids, so perhaps best not to inflict this on real children in the wild just yet.
On that note, I would really appreciate it if someone could give me some tips on how to (eventually) package this up so it can be installed from PyPI, because I have no idea how to do that. :) At the moment I'm testing it as a package by using a nasty hack to put the folder in my Python Path which is no doubt highly illegal and should get me escorted from the mailing list. ;)
Laura
On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Alex Bradbury asb@asbradbury.org wrote:
On 14 November 2016 at 09:37, Laura Sach lawsie@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python
GUI
library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some
people at
Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
This is looking great, thanks for sharing!
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Have you looked at Shoes (from the Ruby world) at all? It was created with a similar aim - to make it as easy as possible to get started with GUI programming http://shoesrb.com/walkthrough/. It might be worth looking at for inspiration, but of course it leans heavily on Ruby magic.
Alex

On 14/11/2016 10:47, Laura Sach wrote:
On that note, I would really appreciate it if someone could give me some tips on how to (eventually) package this up so it can be installed from PyPI, because I have no idea how to do that. :) At the moment I'm testing it as a package by using a nasty hack to put the folder in my Python Path which is no doubt highly illegal and should get me escorted from the mailing list. ;)
Laura,
In the spirit of teaching people to fish, you should be looking at this:
https://packaging.python.org/distributing/
and this:
https://github.com/pypa/sampleproject
and particularly this:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pypa/sampleproject/master/setup.py
But if you'd rather not, then let me know and I'll send through a PR
TJG

Not wanting to jump on someone else's thread (but blatantly doing so), I've been working on the exact same thing!
It's been in use at my school for the last couple of years, and a few other local teachers are using it..
I've put a lot of effort into documenting it: http://appJar.info
And had a fair amount of success in the classroom - it's even been used in GCSE controlled assessments.
When I started it, I knew nothing about Python or tkinter, so it's grown into a bit of a beast! Especially as I kept adding new features for the kids. But it does the job, and I've had lots of positive feedback.
Again, it's still in beta, so there are a couple of bugs, and the 'learn' section isn't finished. But I'd welcome some feedback or the chance to collaborate...
Richard
On 14 Nov 2016, at 11:13, Tim Golden mail@timgolden.me.uk wrote:
On 14/11/2016 10:47, Laura Sach wrote: On that note, I would really appreciate it if someone could give me some tips on how to (eventually) package this up so it can be installed from PyPI, because I have no idea how to do that. :) At the moment I'm testing it as a package by using a nasty hack to put the folder in my Python Path which is no doubt highly illegal and should get me escorted from the mailing list. ;)
Laura,
In the spirit of teaching people to fish, you should be looking at this:
https://packaging.python.org/distributing/
and this:
https://github.com/pypa/sampleproject
and particularly this:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pypa/sampleproject/master/setup.py
But if you'd rather not, then let me know and I'll send through a PR
TJG _______________________________________________ Pythonedu-wg mailing list Pythonedu-wg@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonedu-wg

On 14/11/16 09:37, Laura Sach wrote:
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python GUI library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some people at Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Laura (an ex-teacher, for context)
Pythonedu-wg mailing list Pythonedu-wg@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonedu-wg
There's also Beeware (http://pybee.org/) that abstracts the underlying GUI toolkit so you can write a GUI based Python project and Beeware will work out how to make it run on Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, iOS etc etc.
Also, Russell (dev at Beeware) is awesome.
I want to see if I can create a version of Mu to sit on Beeware.
N.

On 14/11/16 09:37, Laura Sach wrote:
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python GUI library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some people at Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Laura (an ex-teacher, for context)
Pythonedu-wg mailing list Pythonedu-wg@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonedu-wg
Also, if you're looking for collaborators and you're based near London there's a Python project night called "Build Something" that attracts a number of developers who want to help people with their "side projects". Next one is this Wednesday.
https://www.meetup.com/London-Python-Project-Nights/
:-)
N.

On 14/11/16 09:37, Laura Sach wrote:
Hi all,
As a teacher, I found it really frustrating that there wasn't a Python GUI library that was accessible to children. I talked about it to some people at Pycon but it didn't really go anywhere, so I decided to have a go myself!
https://github.com/lawsie/guizero
More on the aims of what I'm trying to do can be found in the readme.
Any comments/advice/help would be most welcome! :)
Laura (an ex-teacher, for context)
Pythonedu-wg mailing list Pythonedu-wg@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonedu-wg
There's also "Toga" that appears to be similar in scope!
http://pybee.org/project/projects/libraries/toga/
N.
participants (5)
-
Alex Bradbury
-
Laura Sach
-
Nicholas H.Tollervey
-
Richard Jarvis
-
Tim Golden